In spending the day at Pearl Harbor we took advantage of seeing the USS Bowfin Submarine museum. It was very interesting to see how the men and women lived life in a submarine in very tight quarters and how everything works. Our first time to be on a submarine and it is a amazing day visit to not be missed.

Located at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial. Tour the inside and walk along the deck of a World War II submarine, the USS Bowfin. You walk the entire length of the sub from the torpedo room, through the living quarters, the control room and the engine rooms. Really cool but beware if you are claustrophobic. Make sure to pick up the audio tour that is included with your admission. In addition to the sub, there are other outdoor exhibits and 3 interactive museums to explore. You could easily spend 2 hours here looking at everything but 1 hour is adequate if just touring the sub. Visiting the Pearl Harbor visitor center and museums is free, but you need a separate ticket to enter the USS Bowfin. Same goes for the USS Missouri and the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum. It costs $21.99 for the USS Bowfin, or you can purchase a Passport to Pearl Harbor pass for $89.99 that includes all 3. This pass doesn't actually save you any money when visiting the 3 sites although it also includes an audio tour of the visitor center and a virtual reality experience which I thought was worthwhile.

As a retired submariner, I’ve been to a few submarine museums, and I think this is the best one I’ve ever been to. In addition to the World War II submarine USS Bowfin, the museum has two large halls. One hall is devoted to World War II submarine operations in the Pacific and the other hall is devoted to submarine operations since the end of World War II. Both are very informative and very well done.

This is part of Pearl Harbor, and so worth your time. Its a self guided tour on/in the sub. You have to be able to climb up and down steep stairs and crawl through small doors inside so if you have mobility issues I would sugest you not do this. But it is so interesting to see and kids really love it. Very educational. They take your picture on the way out with the sub behind you and is printed on a replica newspaper for $25. Im a scrapbooker so I was excited about that. There is a museum about the submarines and there crew that is very interesting, my faverite part was the flag making from the crew and the old sewing machine they used.

Great display and presentation of a WWII submarine! I can only imagine what the men / boys aboard this amazing piece of equipment went through. My father was aboard a similar sub (Bergal). So I felt as if I was seeing the same things he would have seen as a young man so many years ago

amazing..... what a total eye opener. You think you get an idea of tight spaces watching at WW2 sub movie, but nothing beats actually going inside one. Even my wife loved it and was gobsmacked at how they designed and got so much tech, even 80 years ago, into a sub. I could have spent hours however you need to be aware of others wanting to pass and go through which in some areas means you need to move on.

In the Pearl Harbor Museum complex, there is a submarine museum that is associated with the history of WWII. One of the artifacts that is featured is the USS Bowfin Submarine. First swimming on December 7 1942, one year after the attack, she was known as the “Pearl Harbor Avenger,” with nine successful patrols within three years before the War ended. Some of the locations she was patrolling were the South China Sea, the Sea of Japan, and the Celebes Sea. This was my first time being on a submarine; I cannot believe how tight and narrow the walkways were. I give these service men and women who are stationed inside these submarines some credit. They are in these tight places trying to defend this great nation under the water of the seas. When in Pearl Harbor, take a stroll to the USS Bowfin and see what these service men and women lived and worked.

USS Bowfin submarine is located by the Pearl Harbor visitor center, to the right from it. There's an entry fee of around 25$ and it's the cheapest of all paying attractions. This was my second visit to a submarine, and I was thrilled again with the experience, so I encourage people to go and visit it. Unbelievable order in such a tight place, packed with everything sailors need under the sea - from dining and sleeping areas, to instruments for navigation and torpedoes, really amazing. After visiting the sub itself, you can learn more about them in a small museum by the entrance.

The Bowfin and Submarine Museum might not get as much notoriety as the Arizona and Missouri, but this spot shouldn’t be overlooked. The museum is well done and gives a completely different overview than other parts of the Pearl Harbor Memorial. Submarine warfare is a totally different beast than surface and air and these exhibits illustrate why. Walking the top and underdecks of the Bowfin is simply amazing and gives a raw picture of what these boats are all about. A couple tips.. The Bowfin itself is pretty tight space-wise and requires you to step through several elevated hatches. This can pose a challenge if you have young kids or are traveling with elderly folks with degraded mobility. For this reason, no strollers aboard and they don’t allow kids under 4. Also, recommend you take the time to walk through and learn from the pier-side museum exhibits prior to walking aboard the Bowfin. This way, what you see and absorb on the Bowfin will make a little more sense and enrich the experience, especially if you’re unfamiliar with submarines and/or naval history.

The museum includes the USS BOWFIN itself, a WW2 submarine which is very well preserved, where you can take your time looking through all the compartments, as well as a very newly renovated museum with many interactive exhibits, historial items and educational games. We spent most of a day there and had a really good lunch as well. There are things for the history buffs as well as technology geeks, and a bunch of places for kids to play.